Renée Notkin led us in this prayer on our fourth Sunday of May:
Living God,
When we began our focus on Jesus’ teaching in Matthew, learning together what it means to be on the road with you, our Guide, our Teacher, our Champion, our Supporter, Our Lord, we were open to learning how to travel well on the Road you set before us.
-To seek your light to guide our steps
-To run the race well
-To encourage others walking alongside us
-To be people who share of our resources with other sojourners
-To talk with you about the bumps in the road, the roadblocks, the challenges of detours
We were eager to travel in step with You.
God of all time and giver of all good gifts, we confess that we did not envision learning to travel this unfamiliar, unknown road where we cannot meet in gatherings, where we now wear masks for the safety of others, where our conversation is dominated by a virus we cannot see, where we wander around the same room not sure what to do.
God of comfort, you know that we are overwhelmed and numbed by the number of people who have died from COVID-19 and you also know of people in our community who are right now suffering from other illnesses, from unemployment, from mental stress, from loneliness. Through your Spirit fill their hearts with the warmth of your presence and their minds with the knowledge of your unconditional love and delight in them.
Creator God, Comforting Spirit and Lover of all humanity – on this unfamiliar road help us to trust that no road is foreign for you – and you are guiding us to find our way. You are HERE. In our uncertainty – we seek your PRESENCE.
In the realities of social distancing, help us to discover creative and life-giving ways to walk your path of justice…of restoration…of kindness. To be Your people of mercy and wholeness and compassion.
Help us to speak up for those who are being ostracized, mocked and abused. Give us no tolerance for words of hate and acts of violence toward another human being. Give us courage to be promoters of peace and instruments of healing.
Help us to see that even when our feet are still in slippers and we’ve not set foot outside our door, we are still YOUR Sojourners of grace and hope.
Help us to see that you are with us in every zoom call. Give us wisdom when we need to say ‘no’ to the screen and yes to a moment of pause to listen to the birds outside our window. To listen.
To plant seeds of hope in a garden or yogurt container or through our words of grace in a conversation.
Merciful Lord, you promised that when we seek your kingdom and all its righteousness – you give us abundantly of your Spirit of wisdom from above – which is purse, peaceable, gentle, full of mercy and good fruits – without partiality or hypocrisy. You give us a Spirit that sows peace and reaps a harvest of justice. Lord, we pray that you will fill us with your Spirit of Wisdom that we might be about Your transforming work so that it may be on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us confidence in YOUR LOVE for us that is so high and wide, so deep and long, that nothing can separate us from Your LOVE and from Yo that is found through Jesus Christ our Lord. We thank you that when you upon us, You see us as human beings made in Your image, beautifully and wonderfully made.
In the name of our Savior, Jesus. Amen